C-WW Somebody slap me silly, but I've got the beginnings of a crazy idea..... Does anybody know what the world record is for the longest continuous loop in HO and the longest train ever run on a track? I love to see long trains run, and I'm always trying to push stuff harder and farther.. The longest full-sized train was run in Africa, 4.5 miles or 660 cars long. How about in HO? Obviously if anyone attempts this they'll need a lot of help, but it may be a way to attract more interest in the hobby? Any comments or suggestions on my wacky idea??? Mark [ March 29, 2006, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: watash ]
Yeah I got a suggestion! If your attempting to run a train that's long, you'd better modify the weight on the rolling stock. Just the right weight will keep the train on the track in the turns while the strain is less on the locomotive pulling it along. An HO boxcar is 5 1/2 inches long, so a 100 car train would be about 48 feet long. I love long trains too, but you got to think about what you got and what materials you need to accomplish this task. Good luck!
I think that the model railroad club in new jersey had the guniness record .... 0ver 600 cars.. they are expanding their layout another additional 80X120 feet and are planning to up the record.... Jen
I'm laughing but i'll keep my thoughts to myself On the loop record, I guess that would be one way to attract attention... lol
I was thinking about building a loop on the high school track next door. Outdoors of course. It'd have to be pre-assembled in sections. It sounds easy, but it would have to take over 450 15' sections to do it. Obviously not a task to take on alone. The advantages would be obvious for attempting a record-length train. Long and very gentle curves, flat surface, .... The other problem would be rolling stock and engines. It'd probably have to be DCC simply to match the speeds of the engines under load so they are all working together. And then WHO would have enough rolling stock to do it? Nobody of course. So it'd have to include the efforts of a lot of people. Maybe this is just a hair-brained idea, but it's good for keeping the mind going! Mark
Better figure on using old Lead boilered Varney steam engines with dual Pitman #71 motors and make 120" radius curves with intermediate and pusher engines too. You can borrow my 15 amp selemium rectifyer power pack for the load.
Yes, the club I belong to, The Model Railroad Club (www.tmrci.com) did have the longest model train ever assembled. This was actually on a real layout, not just a circle of track, and I think there were about 660 cars on the train, the most that could have been put at the current time. The front locos just barely touched the last car. There was another group in NY I think that got up to 690 cars, but theirs was just a straigt section of track at a mall they set up and only moved the train about 3 feet forward. Mike
I heard about your club from NMRA. 660 cars! And all on a loop? That's takes some good work to keep a train going on a loop like that. The train must have been over 300' long. How many times did you make it around the track? I've found that the longest full-sized train was in Africa at about 660 cars as well. It traveled at about 45 mph for several hundred mils, on flat ground of course. I wouldn't consider the other attempt a real run at it. 690 cars going only 3' in a straight line doesn't count in my book. You have to run it all the way around the track to make it count. I've heard that you need to make it 3 times around a track to make it count? It looks like if I REALLY want to make a run at a world record the bar has been set pretty high! Mark
